One of my favorite television shows on T.V. is called “The Voice”. Participants on “The Voice” have the opportunity to compete for a musical recording contract with a major recording label by showcasing their vocal talent during blind auditions where they sing for the opportunity to be chosen by a coach to join that coaches team and then they proceed to the battle rounds & the knock out rounds where they compete against other participants to make it into the finals and then finally they head to the finale where 3-4 participants compete for America’s vote.
Every season of “The Voice” is kind of a roller coaster of a ride to watch as these contestants do their thing. But inevitably it’s the contestant who has some raw innate ability to capture the hearts of America that ends up winning the competition. In other words… it’s the contestant who passionately captures the emotional ethos of their art and ruthlessly wipes out the competition and authoritatively commands the stage that winds up getting crowned as the final king or queen of “The Voice”.
In many ways this is the portrait that Luke is painting of Jesus in our passage today. Jesus is the King of kings who enters Jerusalem passionately weeping over the lostness of people. Jesus is the King of kings who violently clears out those who have made a mockery of His Father’s house and then he authoritatively choke slams those who are viciously opposed to his Kingship.
Look at Luke 19:41 – 20:8…
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” 47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.
1 One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” 3 He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4 was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” 5 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
The questions we have to wrestle with here are… “How affected are we by Jesus’ passion to save us & others from our lost state of living? How responsive are you to Jesus when he passionately enters the temple of your heart to clear out the sinfulness and the idolatry that has taken up residence there? In what ways have you been living that actually opposes the passionate authority of Jesus as the King of kings & the Lord of lords?”
Here’s the thing… Jesus is a passionate King. Jesus passionately grieves over the condition of your heart. Jesus passionately goes to war to clean out the filthiness in your heart. Jesus passionately brings the authority of his Word through the power of His Spirit to command the ship of your heart. How affected are you by the passion of Jesus? How responsive are you to the passion of Jesus? In what ways have you been living that opposes the passion of Jesus? Jesus is a passionate King. How does this portrait of Jesus move your affections and your responsiveness and your lifestyle?
Take A Look At The Portrait Of Jesus Passionately Weeping… (41 – 44)
Luke tells us that as Jesus makes his way down the mountain the city of Jerusalem comes into full view and when he “saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eye. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.’” What Jesus envisions here is a total destruction of the city of Jerusalem. He literally prophecies that a day will come soon where the city and all of it’s inhabitants will come into a place of complete ruin as the Roman empire comes and lays waste to the city and all it’s inhabitants. This prophetic vision and proclamation causes Jesus to passionately weep over the lostness of the city and the people who live there. Jesus literally weeps passionately because he knows the destruction that is in store for these people because they’ve completely missed the reality of the cost of peace that he is offering them.
How affected are you by Jesus’ passion to save you?
The reality is that we are surrounded by the enemy forces of Satan, sin and the world. The reality is that there are many barricades in our lives that seek to hide the truth of Jesus from the eyes of our hearts. There’s the reality of demonic influence seeking to speak lies into our hearts. There’s the reality of the presence & the pressure & the temptation of sin that barricades our hearts from the truth of who Jesus is and what he wants to do in our lives. There’s also the reality of the world we live in that sets up barricades in opposition to the gospel.
Satan, sin and the world are an unholy trinity that not only barricade our hearts from being affected by the gospel but they also surround us on every side and they hem us in and they seek to tear down the work of Jesus in our hearts. But Jesus has visited every one of us through the message of the gospel, the preaching of God’s Word and the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. Do you recognize the truth that God is speaking to you through the preaching of this passage? Is your heart cut to the core by this portrait of Jesus passionately weeping over you and anyone else who is in danger of total ruin without Christ? How affected are you by the portrait of Jesus’ passion to give his perfect life as the sacrifice and the payment for your sin? How affected are you by Jesus’ passion to save you? Jesus weeps passionately over the lostness of anyone who continues living in the bondage & the deception of Satan, sin & the world. How affected are you in these moments by this portrait of the passion of Jesus?
Take A Look At The Portrait Of Jesus Passionately Cleaning House… (45 – 48)
After Luke describes Jesus’ lamenting cries over the city of Jerusalem and the lostness of it’s people that would soon result in blood bathed streets of a totally destructed city he tell us that Jesus arrived in town and “entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, ‘It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.’ And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.” This is a picture of Jesus passionately cleaning house. One scholar says that the perfect temple came into a sin-filled temple and cleaned out the filth. In other words… the Word of life came into a sin filled and corrupted temple and violently cleaned out the idols of sinfulness that were entrenched deep within it’s hallways.
Jesus literally went on an offensive rampage throughout the hallways of the temple that had been taken over by a corrupt religious system that was running a money laundering and highly profitable business under the name of God so that religious leaders could bankroll their greedy and sinful lifestyles. And to top it all off… the hallways that Jesus passionately cleaned up were known as the Court of the Gentiles which were suppose to be reserved for people who weren’t part of Israel so that they had a place to come and worship and become part of the family of God but instead these hallways had become a money laundering business that squashed the missional outreach of God’s people.
How responsive are you to Jesus’ passion to clean house?
The reality of this piece of Luke’s portrait of Jesus is that after he cleans house and restores it back to a house of Godly prayer, preaching and evangelism there are two kinds of people who respond to him. The religious types (who should have been the heroes) seek to destroy Jesus and all the other people are hanging on his every word. One scholar says that some people were literally seeking to murder Jesus while other people were literally hanging on Jesus. Some people wanted to destroy Jesus and other people were literally clinging to Jesus. When Jesus enters the interiors of your heart he passionately begins to tear down the idols and rip out the roots of sin that have turned you into a corrupted den of thieves. How responsive are you to Jesus when he does this? Do you seek to destroy him or do you cling to his every word? Do you love the den of thieves that has taken up residence in your heart or do you hang on every word that comes from the mouth of the Word who gives life? Do you love the den of thieves that is full of lies & hatred & jealousy & envy & lust & anger & bitterness & resentment & gossip & complaining & malice? Do you respond to Jesus’ passion to clean up the house of your heart by loving this den of thieves and seeking to put Jesus to death once again?
Or do you hang on Jesus? Do you love Jesus because he loved you enough to give his perfect life for you? Do you love Jesus by believing the truth of the gospel & by loving your enemies & by putting other’s needs before your own & by giving what you have to advance the gospel & by serving others without regard to payback & by forgiving those who’ve hurt you & by training your tongue to speak words that give life to others and glorify God? Do you cling to the life giving words of The Word who is Jesus? How responsive are you to Jesus’ passion to clean up the house of your heart?
Take A Look At The Portrait Of Jesus Passionately Exerting His Authority… (1 – 8 of chapter 20)
After Jesus weeps over the impending doom of Jerusalem and passionately cleans house he sets up a pulpit in the hallways of the temple and begins preaching. Luke tells us that “as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” 3 He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4 was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” 5 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” This is an awesome portrait of what Jesus passionately does in our hearts. He passionately weeps over the darkness and destruction of our hearts and then when we receive him into our hearts he comes in and violently destroys what’s been destroying us and then he sets up a pulpit and begins preaching the life giving Word of God into the emptiness of our hearts so that we fill up with His Word that breathes new life into us by the grace of the Father and the power of the Spirit. This is a picture of Jesus passionately exerting his authority in our hearts.
In what ways have you been living that actually opposes the passionate authority of Jesus?
The leading religious types in the temple opposed Jesus’ authoritative preaching of the gospel so they sought to discredit him by questioning his authority with a devious question regarding John the Baptist but Jesus wasn’t buying into their little games and he wasn’t getting sidetracked from his passion & calling to preach the gospel so he asks them a question in return which if they answered one way would result in the crowds rioting and if they answered I n in another way would result in Jesus winning the debate with a God ordained choke-slam. So the leading religious types decide to say that don’t know the answer to Jesus’ question and Jesus basically responds by saying “If you won’t answer my question regarding where John’s authority came from then neither will I answer your question in regards to where my authority came from.” Boom! Classic choke-slam! Jesus passionately exerts his authority.
In what ways have you been living that actually opposes the passionate authority of Jesus? Do you discredit his Word by the way you live or do you hunger to hear God’s Word? Do you oppose His Word with your lifestyle or do you cling to God’s Word? Do you reject the Word of Christ or do you passionately embrace God’s Word? Are you standing behind the pulpit of your heart or is Christ standing at the pulpit of your heart? Jesus is ready to passionately & authoritatively preach the life giving Word of the Lord from within the pulpit of your heart. Will you let him or will you oppose him?
Let me wrap up with some final thoughts…
Affections, responsiveness & lifestyle are all interconnected. The affections of our hearts motivate the responsiveness of our souls and the responsiveness of our souls influence the activity of our lives and the activity of our lives proves how this portrait of our passionate King Jesus has moved us.
“How affected are you by Jesus’ passion to save you & others from our lost state of living? How responsive are you to Jesus when he passionately enters the temple of your heart to clear out the sinfulness and the idolatry that has taken up residence there? In what ways have you been living that actually opposes the passionate authority of Jesus as the King of kings & the Lord of lords?” Jesus is a passionate King. Jesus passionately grieves over the condition of your heart. Jesus passionately goes to war to clean out the filthiness in your heart. Jesus passionately brings the authority of his Word through the power of His Spirit to command the ship of your heart. How affected are you by the passion of Jesus? How responsive are you to the passion of Jesus? In what ways have you been living that opposes the passionate Kingship of Jesus? Jesus is a passionate King. How does this portrait of Jesus move your affections and your responsiveness and your lifestyle?